Friday, May 30, 2014

Remember that Digimon Card Game that nobody EVER understood how to play. And even less players were actually willing to play? Well thank god BanDai (when they were good and didn't merge with Namco) came up with a console version of the game. That makes sense!

The card game has a general history of failure so to speak. The first TCG was complicated. Having tons of digivolution requirements and even rather unfair battle requirements. Your attack was determined by your opponents symbol in the top-left corner of the card. To digivolve you had to have the required digimon in play and then follow the right requirements. Be It DNA fusing, discarding, or some other card needed. Then once that's all done you could play tamer cards. Generally like Spell or Trap cards it just changes small things like power bonus, Attack changes, or type changes. Honestly all the Tamer cards looked silly. There's one of Myotismon drinking wine while Demidevimon serves him. Once all that's done you determine who's the winner. The Digimon that has the highest attack wins the battle. Then that player determines how many points he or she gets by looking at there card. The first player to 1000 points wins. Complicated enough for you?

In this case of these 2 digimon fighting each other. If no Tamer cards were played Veedramon would use V-Nova Blast due to SkullGreymon's Symbol in the corner. While SkullGreymon uses Defend. Veedramon currently has the highest attack power and would therefore win the battle. The player with Veedramon would gain 200 points for winning the battle cause SkullGreymon is an ultimate level.

Then later on thanks to Season 2 and 3 (or 2nd Half Season One and Tamers to other anime watches) the TCG got a revised version. While the game played the same. This was supposed to help players know how to play the game better. Also apparently things were supposed be more balanced. But honestly nothing really changed. The cards received a 3D look (looked boring IMO). And supposed to be easier to make sense of. The game did however come up with a simplistic way to quick play. By selecting your favorite digimon card vs your opponent's. You determine what attack is used by the color of the bar at the top of your opponent's card. Whoever has the highest attack wins....Yep...boring....This game was generally becoming a collector card bit while Magic and Yugioh Dominated the TCG world.

Giving all the cards a 3D animated look. The only thing that really changed was how much was scored in certain situations. There was some areas that banned the use of the version 1 cards. And others that didn't mind. The main thing that changed is the amount of extra abilities a digimon has.

But Digimon did not give up entirely on the TCG business. They tried one more time and this time the Card game was completely redone...Redone and copied Yugioh...-_-. Seriously this game was a copycat form of Yugioh with only 1 difference. Instead of sacrificing your monsters for stronger ones you digivolve them. Your digimon lined up just like in Yugioh would. Instead of Losing Life Points you gained Data Points. And the damage was based on Attack Stat vs Defense Stat, not Highest attack wins. Unforntunately "Yugioh" and "Magic: The Gathering" pretty much rooted out all other competition in the TCG world at the time. So this card game didn't even have a chance in the US. I was lucky enough to acquire a starter pack before it stopped being sold. Nobody wanted to play anything that wasn't Yugioh or Magic. Trust me on this.

FYI This is MetalGarurumon X. But as you can see this is practically a clone of Yugioh. In fact you could easily rewrite these cards into Yugioh cards and they would be able to compete easily with it.

There were other TCGs of Digimon but none the be truly notable. One that required you to own a digivice and enter codes. Another that didn't even make it to the states. TCG games are a tricky business.

I actually still have my Digimon cards and my pokemon cards...(no one wants to buy them). Seriously the only thing that makes money now in terms of cards is Magic or Yugioh. Anyway the PSX game took Digimon's complicated and impossible system and simplified it to make it playable. And the AI is generally fair unlike other card games.

For one there are no Mega Level Digimon to digivolve into. Instead those famous Mega Level digimon are considered Ultimate level.

The Battle system is more of a rock paper scissors with a bit of meta game behind it thanks to option cards.

Digivolving requirements unlike the TCG game only require you to be the same element and have enough DP.

You can see your opponent's hand as well to make a well informed decision on your next move.

You only need to win 3 battles.

This is the PSX Version of the Digimon Card game.

What's involved in this kind of play is that you make a good Rock, Paper, Scissors type of guess against your opponent and win 3 times by knocking out your opponent's digimon. Since you can see your opponent's hand guessing which attack to use can be simple at times. The Types of attacks mapped to your buttons are:

O Button: Usually your strongest attack dealing the highest damage. But can be easy to stop.

Triangle Button: 2nd Strongest and harder to stop.

X Button: Weakest attack but usually carries a special ability behind it.

After you select your attack. You don't know what attack your opponent has chosen so you can only make a well educated guess. Since you can look at there hand at any time. If the opponent has a support card to either block or change your attack you can easily guess. But there's also wildcard support. You blindly draw a card from your deck and will use that as your support whatever it is. The game moves along pretty fast and there's no true OTK (One Turn Kill) or instant win cards. Even the worst deck can turn the battle in his or her favor.

Digivolving is simple. All you need is the proper amount of DP, the next level of digimon (champion, Ultimate) and for the next level to make the same border color (very few exceptions). You gain DP by playing Digimon into your DP Slot. The amount of DP you gain varies. The only other type of evolution is Armor and that's only by Partner Digimon.

After certain points in the game your partner Digimon gains Digi-eggs to Armor Digivolve. Basically the Armor Digimon just like the show can be as strong as Champion or Ultimate level digimon. Also partner digimon gain experience to make themselves stronger in the game so they're a solid, if not a last resort to win the game for you.

Ok that's enough about that. Let me tell you about the AI....The AI can be either stupid or plain out mean depending on where you are in the game. Notable Opponents(Spoilers):

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Garurumon: You already fought annoying water decks to get to this guy. But this guy takes Water decks to a new level. While generally Water Decks are defensive. Garurumon's deck takes the counter-attack approach. Forcing you to use certain attacks that he can counter easily. If that wasn't enough beating him the 2nd time around is no laughing matter.

Veedramon: The first go around with this guy is rather easy. Cause he's mind controlled and makes stupid moves. 2nd time around. His whole deck is themed around him. Being a mono-Green deck he he's pretty well balanced in all areas. But Green/Forest-type decks specialize in Digivolving insanely fast. If he manages to pull out AeroVeedramon, you'll have an even worse time dealing with him.

Quetzalmon: The first time you face this guy he's not too serious but not a pushover either. The 2nd time he's highly formidable. Specializing in Black type deck. Black Decks are made for trolling. Cutting your Digimon's HP, dropping your attack power, changing your Digimon's type. Its truly a troll deck even worse he can play the game quite well.

Analogmon: If you were thinking I was gonna put VenomMyotismon here. You're wrong. To serve as the final boss of the main storyline. Analogmon cheats. First by throwing your partner cards to the bottom of the deck through his own Gameshark. Then his deck is literally stacked and uses the Legendary 7's cards. The Legendary 7's Cards can pretty much secure you the win by using the greatest beneficial effects for its user. From Instant digivolving to restoring his deck. Even worse multiplying his Attack and HP.

MetalGreymon: Well if you like the Greymon Series cards. He's got them. And he doesn't mess around. Since he sports Red/Fire Deck. His attack power is exceptionally high. Hope you got a good defense.

BlackWarGreymon: The true boss of the story. But this guy is the Akuma/Gouki of the game. He only shows to those that are worthy for a true battle...this time for a battle of cards.

That about wraps up the explanation of the game. I'm gonna play through it to the best of my ability and willpower. So catch it on my youtube channel if you want. My reasons for playing this. Well I got done watching the first 30 episodes of Digimon Fusion (ENG Dub). Aside from stirring up some feelings. I felt like playing a digimon game that wouldn't put me to sleep. I have to say aside from Digimon Rumble Arena (the first one not the crappy 2nd one) This is one of the digimon games I like.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

As of May 20th, 2014. All online play of the Wii and NDS consoles has been cutoff. I'm honestly sad to see online play go. But at the same time maybe its a good thing to see it go. My last bit of fun with the Wii titles online and NDS weren't all that great.

Mario Kart Wii Online

Usually when I play this online, I find myself in a room of hackers. By hackers I mean I see players use the auto-item cheat to mess with every other racer. Either to win first place themselves or just to troll. The game already has enough chaos as it is. I don't need other players adding to it. While my session online this time went well. My only gripe is how many times everyone picked Rainbow Road. I hate this version's Rainbow Road. I really do. I ended it by reaching 6000 points in the ranking and that was enough to satisfy me. I only like racing as Bowser or Bowser Jr. the rest of the characters are meh to me. I use Dry Bowser on the side but I'm not fond of him. I still never unlocked Rosalina or the last Mii version character. Not that i'll ever use them.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Online

I always get comments about how the online is total garbage (bad netcode). I will say most of my matches (85%) are of decent connection. I always ask myself is it there ISP? Playing on the otherside of the world, what else are they doing online? Usually when I play online I always find myself having either good matches or lol moments cause of lag. But I could never complain about the netcode.

Sadly all that was online this time around aside from 1 friend was a bunch of T-Baggers, and players that did nothing. This is how my last memory of this game's online is going to be?

I only played as characters I like. While I had potential with guys like DK, or Zero Suit Samus. I didn't like them. I like Lucario, Bowser, DeDeDe, Ice Climbers, Pokemon Trainer, Wolf, and Yoshi. I didn't really like the others.

The one thing I hate about this game is that pretty much no one plays it. Instead they whine about how there's random tripping (which I never really experience) or really should say, "This isn't Melee!" I don't care for melee anymore. Its grown to an over-competitive state where you're not allowed to have fun. Even went as far as to make Project M for this sake. I like only bits and pieces of that mod. But overall I hate Project M. Its supposed to balance out all the characters and make new ones? I honestly don't see the balance or care for that matter. The only good thing I think came out of that was custom music. But I outgrew that when I saw what a waste of time modding my Wii was. Anyway I hope the next Smash doesn't grow out of control like Melee did. I really hate to see a game end up in the "No-Fun Zone".

Megaman Starforce 2 and 3 Online

I do like Starforce and this was the only way to play people in Megaman online. Sadly though this game is just full of hackers and trolls at least from what I encountered. I was unable to record a match were things were fair. Instead I got players that stacked there card folder in there favor. If it was just Fighter Swords all day I accept that. There's no way to prove there folder's stacked. But Instead I found. 9999 Damage Cards, All Dread Laser, Dive Bomb, etc. If I didn't come across that I instead came across trolls that would disconnect on purpose. And that game has a nag screen and a slight penalizing system that comes up regardless of who did the disconnection. So no online here.

Games I would've loved to play online for the Wii

There's tons I have that either no one else has or just refuses to play. At least when I went online I found no one else to play.

Mario Super Sluggers

Castlevania: Judgement

Tatsunko vs Capcom

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Echoes of Time

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker I & II

Mario Strikers Charged

Sadly no one I know or ever found plays these games. Instead I found complaints that the game sucked for one reason or another. Really just people whining and never playing the game. Guess I'll never play them online. There are methods to play online but only for certain games and I rather just not play them online through someone's private server. Just feels like a waste of time.

Conclusion

I'm sad to see the Wii and NDS online go. I feel those were the only consoles where when I played online I felt good most of the time after each session. Now I'm stuck with the riff raff on PS3 and 360. I'm not sure if the 3DS or Wii U's online community will make me have a good feeling after playing online considering the time we live in. But I guess there's hope sorta...

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Sorry for the huge lack of updates in terms of a podcast or anything like that. Its not that I haven't had anything to talk about. But more just been too tired and stressed emotionally to bother.

I been so tired between videos for Youtube and real life obligations I'm virtually stretched thin. My emotions also have taken a turn for the worse lately as well due to many things. I've even considered suicide again... I would love for things to get easier or less stressful but that won't happen for a long while with everything that's happening this summer as well.

I had a lot of special projects in mind but lack of encouragement has put a halt to me actually doing anything special. After thinking about it a lot, I ended up projecting that those said projects would end up being a huge flop and a waste of my time. Maybe I should pursue something else. I don't know.

If I was to say anything about what I want. I'd say I just want more comments. I haven't really heard anything other than the common responses. That's all I can say about that.